Tuesday, August 3, 1993

God Knows

by Joseph Heller
1984

The story of King David, portrayed as a wunderkind whose time has passed, who has lost his God; Solomon is a moron, Bathsheba a schemer. It was funny and touching. It mixed Biblical speech with modern slang to humorous effect. David's references to many things modern, although "now" in the book is when he is seventy and thus it's still Biblical era, did throw me a bit. What I liked best was how human the characters were, how Heller took apparent discrepancies in Scripture and made them into symbolic, meaningful, complex and human acts. Also, the disjointed chronological order of the book resembled the ramblings of an old man looking back, each story reminding him of another. All in all, a very solid book.

four stars

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